Titans coach Justin Holbrook has confirmed Tino Fa’asuamaleaui will stay the membership’s sole captain regardless of the arrival of veteran halfback Kieran Foran.
The 22-year-old made his NRL captaincy debut final season and wore his coronary heart on his sleeve, and Holbrook is hoping a core of skilled gamers can help the gun ahead going into the 2023 season.
Holbrook’s management group will embrace Fa’asuamaleaui alongside Foran, AJ Brimson, Isaac Liu and Roosters recruit Sam Verrills who is about to turn into an integral member of the Gold Coast backbone.
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“It’s definitely going to be Tino on his own,” Holbrook mentioned on SEN’s Sportsday.
“When we won three out of our last four, he really stepped up and we’ve got Isaac Liu there as well, so there’s probably four or five guys under Tino that will help him which is the way we want it, but I’m sticking with Tino to lead the charge.”
“The great thing for Tino, and I’ve spoken to him about this and he agrees, is having Kieran and Sam there and the experience they’ve got, he can just lead with his actions and not have to worry about as much as he took on last year.
“I think he’ll really benefit from the experience around him and I think his game is going to keep improving.
“He’s only 22, so he’ll be exceptional for us this year and it’s great to have him back training with us again.”
The Titans are determined to bounce again from a catastrophe marketing campaign in 2022 after coming just one go away from bursting into the second weeks of finals soccer a yr earlier.
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However, Holbrook has a plan for his facet to enhance and it begins with a extra “challenging” pre-season schedule.
‘We’ve modified issues when it comes to doing extra and dealing more durable and issues like that. We all knew that mentally we weren’t terrific and we had some video games we fell away in and that was fairly apparent,” Holbrook mentioned.
“We’ve put together a training program that’s challenging a lot more, and the players are okay with that. That’s the best thing… they’ve got buy-in on that.
“No one was happy with how we went last year and we sort of got all that fixed towards the back in the last year.
“They understand that what we did last year wasn’t good enough, so we’re covering everything and it’s been enjoyable to watch.”